TMCnet News
Yen falls, Japan stocks jump(Baystreet Foreign Markets Wrap (Canada) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Japan stocks rallied on Tuesday, as the yen turned sharply lower against the greenback, while an unexpected surge in current account surplus in September also boosted the market. The Nikkei 225 vaulted 343.58 points, or 2.1%, to 17,124.11. Meanwhile, the yen dropped sharply versus the U.S. dollar, trading at ¥115.86, compared with ¥114.94 a day earlier. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index hiked 63.58 points, or 0.3%, to 23,808.28. Official data showed Tuesday that Japan's current account surplus reached ¥963 billion ($8.1 billion U.S.) in September, up 61.9% from a year ago, and well ahead of an estimated ¥532.2 billion surplus from economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal and the Nikkei newspaper. Among market movers, semiconductor manufacturer Tokyo Electron Ltd leapt 4.4%, electronics component maker TDK Corporation jumped 3.5%, console maker Nintendo Co., Ltd. climbed 2.6%, Internet and telecoms conglomerate SoftBank Corp and industrial-robot maker Fanuc Corporation both advanced 2.2%. Electronics giant Sharp Corporation gained 2.1%. Hong Kong stocks moved up as investors squeezed some more gains out of news that the long-awaited Hong Kong-Shanghai Stock Connect would start next week, an announcement that boosted shares Monday. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 dipped with the Aussie dollar falling to 85.97 U.S. cents from 86.25 U.S. cents a day ago. In other markets; Shanghai's CSI 300 index demurred 7.12 points, or 0.3%, to 2,558.51 Singapore's Straits Times Index dipped 8.85 points, or 0.3%, to 3,292.15 The Taiex index in Taiwan faded 15.84 points, or 0.2%, to 9.034.14 Korea's Kospi index moved higher 4.77 points, or 0.2%, to 1,963 New Zealand's Exchange 50 advanced 20.45 points, or 0.4%, to 5,490.79 Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 6.86 points, or 0.1%, to 5,517.10 © 1998 - 2014 Baystreet.ca Media Corp. All rights reserved. |